Alan Stern
Alan Stern
Sol Alan Sternis an American engineer and planetary scientist. He is the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Chief Scientist at Moon Express...
ancient belt conducting dig era exploring history outer peek planetary pluto solar
Exploring Pluto and the Kuiper Belt is like conducting an archaeological dig into the history of the outer solar system, a place where we can peek into the ancient era of planetary formation.
billion bit conditions giant observe outer provides rewriting textbooks time window
It provides for us a window 41/2 billion years back in time to observe the formation conditions of giant planets. This is a little bit about rewriting the textbooks about the outer planets.
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It's now our job to be good stewards of the spacecraft. and to learn to fly it in the real environment that it was built for.
above absolute arriving candy covered degrees exotic kids surface system
Its surface is only 40 degrees above absolute zero, covered with exotic ice. We think it's going to be like kids in a candy store, arriving in a system like this.
approach spacecraft testing walk
It's really going spectacularly well. The whole approach to testing a spacecraft is to walk before you run.
forecast mentors planet turn
Not even Tombaugh and his mentors could have forecast how fascinating their new planet would turn out to be.
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It's ... strictly coincidental that Pluto of course was named for the god of the underworld and we're describing these Halloween moons.
describing god halloween named strictly underworld
It's ... strictly coincidental that Pluto, of course, was named for the god of the underworld and we're describing these Halloween moons.
earth planets pluto solar system turns
It used to be that Pluto was a misfit. Now it turns out that Earth is the misfit. Most planets in the solar system look like Pluto, and not like the terrestrial planets.
beyond cross entire mission solar took washington
It took us more years to get the mission beyond the Washington beltway than it will take to cross the entire Solar System.
belt spacecraft
The U.S. has a spacecraft on its way to Pluto, on to the Kuiper belt and on to the stars.
data great including mapping operated pocket
SWUIS operated flawlessly. We think we've got some great data in our pocket including some spectacular data on the mapping of the moon.
data great including mapping operated pocket
SWUIS operated flawlessly, ... We think we've got some great data in our pocket including some spectacular data on the mapping of the moon.
fastest months moon nine pass spacecraft
It'll be the fastest spacecraft ever to Jupiter13 months after launch. We pass the Moon in just nine hours.